Riyadh, Manama voice support for airstrikes on SyriaSaudi Arabia and Bahrain have expressed support for the recent joint airstrikes by the armed forces of the United States, Britain and France on Syria, which came following suspected chemical weapons attacks on a Syrian town.

Hawzah News Agency (Damascus, Syria) - We fully support military operations against military targets in Syria,” a statement by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs read on Saturday following the tripartite assaults against Syria.

The kingdom blamed the Syrian government for purportedly conducting a recent chemical attack, holding Damascus accountable for the military attacks.

In late 2016, Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry acknowledged that more than 1,500 of its citizens were fighting alongside anti-Damascus militant groups in Syria.

Additionally, Bahrain voiced its full support for the aerial military operation against Syria.

Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the operation was necessary for what it called the protection of civilians in all Syrian territory and for preventing the use of any prohibited weapons that would increase the frequency of violence and the deterioration of humanitarian conditions.

The ministry, however, stressed the importance of concerted efforts to end the crisis through political means in a way that preserves the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Arab country.

Syria came under attack one week after a suspected chemical weapons assault hit the town of Douma near Damascus.

Western countries blamed the incident on the Syrian government, but Damascus rejected the accusations as “chemical fabrications” made by the terrorists themselves in a bid to halt advances by pro-government forces.

Syria's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Saturday's strikes as a "brutal, barbaric aggression," saying they would only ignite "tensions in the world and pose threat to the international peace and security as a whole."